Submitting a manuscript to DMM

Terms of submission

DMM considers for publication original research that has not been previously published. Submission to DMM implies that this is the case and that the submitted manuscript is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

During the submission process, authors are asked to declare that the manuscript has been seen and approved by all authors. Submission also indicates that authors agree to abide by DMM's publishing policies, including the declaration of any competing interests to the journal upon submission of a manuscript.

DMM uses the CRediT taxonomy to define author contributions to primary research papers and requires that the independent contributions of each author be provided during online submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to ensure that contributions are agreed by ALL co-authors prior to manuscript submission. Please refer to the journal policies for further information on our authorship policies.

Authors should clearly highlight the key finding(s) of the paper and explain its significance and interest to the field in their cover letter.

Upon article acceptance, Research and Resource articles are posted on the journal web site as accepted author manuscripts (Accepted manuscripts) before journal copyediting and layout and in advance of publication of the online issues in which they will subsequently appear. Authors who would prefer their accepted author manuscript NOT to be posted as an accepted manuscript should tick the relevant check box during the submission process.

Online submission

New manuscripts

DMM is committed to making submission as easy as possible for authors. As part of this commitment, DMM offers format-free submission.

At first submission, authors are not required to format their manuscript according to journal guidelines. However, for the benefit of reviewers and Editors, we do strongly encourage authors to make their manuscripts as easy to read as possible by using appropriate line spacing, line and page numbers, and ensuring that figures are clearly numbered and/or accompanied by their legend.

At submission, you will have the opportunity to list any reviewers that, because of conflicts of interest, you would prefer not to review your article. (Note: reviewer exclusion is at the discretion of the Editor.)

For new submissions, we recommend that you submit your paper as a single PDF file that contains all the necessary text, figures (with their legends) and tables.

Our submission system converts submitted files (PDFs or individual files) into a single PDF file for the review process. The corresponding author must check and approve the PDF to complete the submission process; if there are problems with figure resolution, please contact the Editorial Office.

During the submission process, you will be asked to provide an email address for each author and suggested reviewer. When providing a non-institutional email address (e.g. gmail), an ORCID identifier is also required. Papers submitted using non-institutional email addresses and without ORCID iDs will require additional verification steps, which may cause delays. All corresponding authors are also required to submit an ORCID iD; it is best practice to use an ORCID iD to identify each author.

As a service to our authors, and to facilitate rapid dissemination of research results, DMM offers two-way integration of our manuscript submission system with the bioRxiv preprint server (operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) – thus avoiding the need to re-enter information or upload files in multiple submission systems. During submission to DMM, authors can opt to deposit their article in bioRxiv through a simple one-click process. In addition, authors depositing a manuscript in bioRxiv can transfer their paper directly to DMM through their transfer portal. Once deposited in bioRxiv, either directly or through our deposition portal, the unrefereed manuscript will become free for anyone to read almost immediately and cannot be removed, regardless of the editorial decision made at DMM. It will be citable with a bioRxiv DOI, its usage can be tracked, and it can be updated. Please ensure that all co-authors agree to preprint deposition before uploading or transferring to bioRxiv. Consideration of your manuscript for review and/or publication by DMM is not influenced by whether you choose to post it on bioRxiv.

DMM will consider new submissions accompanied by peer review reports from previous submission to journals of similar scope. Please provide a covering letter that clearly states that you wish the existing reviews to be taken into account, and include all reviews and decision letters as supplementary information. Please note that we may contact the journal from which the reviews originated to confirm details. DMM also reserves the right to request additional peer review.

Revised and accepted manuscripts

For revised submissions and accepted manuscripts, please provide all the necessary text and figures as individual files.

To help you meet your funder requirements, you will be asked to provide details of all funding sources from ALL authors. Please provide the full official funding agency name, as listed on the Crossref Funder Registry, and all relevant grant numbers. See our manuscript preparation guidelines for more details.

Please note that revised manuscripts will be treated as a new submission if they are not submitted within three months of the date of the initial decision.

For more information on the types of articles that can be submitted to DMM, please visit our article types page.

Article Publication Charge

All articles published in DMM are published under an Open Access model: the journal’s costs are covered primarily by article publication charges (rather than subscription fees). Therefore, we ask that authors or the research funders of Research and Resource articles pay a publication charge of £2500 per article (plus VAT if applicable). This covers only a portion of the cost of publishing an article, from the costs associated with the acceptance process, the in-depth editorial work on individual articles and their figures, to the online hosting and archiving costs of significant volumes of data, including supplementary material files, in perpetuity.

DMM has a small budget for waiving publication charges for authors in developing countries and others in genuine financial hardship. Corresponding authors based in the countries listed here will automatically be granted a full waiver upon application. Funds for waivers are limited, however, as the journal would not be sustainable without income from author charges to cover its costs. Payment requests will be sent to the corresponding author following acceptance of their paper. As well as being paid in pound sterling, payments can be made in Euros or US dollars, and will be converted at the official HMRC currency exchange rate.

The decision to publish a paper in DMM is wholly independent of payment or ability to pay, and is based solely on the validity and supportability of the work detailed in each manuscript. Editors and reviewers do not have access to information regarding authors' financial contributions. DMM is published by the not-for-profit publisher The Company of Biologists, a charitable organisation run by scientists to support the research community.

Reducing the pain to publish: transfer to Biology Open

Papers rejected from DMM can be transferred, strictly with the authors’ approval, to Biology Open (BiO), an online Open Access journal also published by The Company of Biologists, for editorial consideration. The Editors of BiO make their editorial decisions independently of DMM, have different criteria for acceptance and have a rapid decision time. To find out more about the transfer option and see who has published in BiO, please click here.